Like it or not Yelp is the 3rd most visited customer review site for restaurants (right behind Google and Facebook). Wichita By E.B. is currently ranked in the top 900 billion of all customer review sites. We are moving up!
Recent studies show that 92% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. Restaurants make up for 18% of all reviews on Yelp which is the largest in any business category. There is no hiding the importance that online reviews have and Yelp makes up a big portion of that.
I decided to look up what the highest rated and highest recommend restaurants were on Yelp. FYI, there are three categories to sort by: recommended, highest rated and most reviewed. So I went with Highest Rated.
The top ten highest rated restaurants on Yelp were Gabby’s Peruvian Restaurant, Beautiful Day Cafe, Doo-Dah Diner, Tanya’s Soup Kitchen, Pig In Pig Out, Georges French Bistro, College Hill Deli, Mediterranean Grill, Bocco Deli, and Bella Vita Bistro.
The top ten highest recommended were Public, Anchor, Gabby’s Peruvian Restaurant, Bella Vita Bistro, Georges French Bistro, B&C Barbeque, Meddy’s, Doo_Dah Diner, PourHouse, and Redrock Canyon Grill.
So when people are searching for restaurants, it usually defaults to the highest recommended. There are over 900 listings so most people probably won’t even look past the first 50 or so.
I decided to look at everything from 300 on and focus on single establishment restaurants that didn’t have multiple locations. There were 7 places I saw that did not make the Top 300 most recommended or Top 300 highest rated list. These are restaurants most people will likely NEVER come across.
Here are my seven snubs for restaurants that have been around for close to two years or more who should easily be in the Top 300. In some cases, McDonald’s and Papa John’s locations were ranking higher.
In no particular order:
- Mariscos Cheli
1851 N Broadway - Winchell’s Donut House
1205 W Pawnee - 3 Amigos
2317 N Arkansas - Magic Wok
9504 W Central Ave - Southeast Carryout
1520 S Oliver - Merle’s Place
440 N Seneca - Julius Rib Cage
2958 S Seneca
Biggest snub for me on that list? Merle’s Place. They absolutely deserve to be in the Top 300!
Some other restaurants that didn’t crack the Top 300 in either the most recommended or highest rated list included: Shang Hai, Taco Rio, Java Villa, Gordita’s Durango, Fish & More, Taquería Mi Lindo Michoacan, Antojitos Guanamex, and Rancho Nuevo Mexican Restaurant.
Lesson to be learned here? I really don’t know but don’t forget about the lesser talked about restaurants.
Happy Dining,
Eddy
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Lesson learned??
Really, you don’t know?
Simple people, quit sitting on your hands, quit being shy! Post a review on your favorite place. Don’t be that person.